Tonight is Alive With the Promise of a Streetfight
by Havah Kinny
Summary: Blue Sheep Reverie. When Kai is taken and held hostage by the Mynah, Lahti must decide whether saving Kai's life is worth the risk. Not only is he faced with this decision, but he must come to terms with his feelings for the boy before it is too late.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N - Alright, this is a story featuring mostly Kai Kouda and Lahti (Yes, I'm going with the American spelling/pronunciation) Bara of Makoto Tateno's Blue Sheep Reverie, and later, Steal Moon. This story takes place AFTER Blue Sheep Reverie Vol. 1 and before Steal Moon. If you haven't read either of the stories but would like to read this fic for any reason, I have pictures of Kai and Lahti on my profile at the top under the title of the story and a VERY brief summary of Blue Sheep Reverie (it is NOT necessary to have read Steal Moon to read this fic). If you have any questions, let me know! I hope that at least someone reads this!**_

_**Also, I took the title and am using lyrics from the song Coffee Shop Soundtrack by All Time Low...which I know is weird, but the lyrics are so nice.  
**_

_**-Havah

* * *

**"Should I write myself out of the history books and mark a place in time for every chance you took?"  
_

"Lahti!" Judd cried as he ran through the Sarte headquarters, looking for his boss. "Lahti Bara!" He skidded to a halt, checking the office that Lahti used when he wasn't in his room or out somewhere. "LAHTI! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"Breathe, Judd." Lahti spoke calmly, leaning against the wall next to Judd as the young bodyguard whipped around, surprised by the sudden appearance. Even leaning against a wall, Lahti looked impressive – tall, serious, strong and nearly most flooring of all, calm. At least, Judd thought, he would be until he hears the news.

"No, Lahti…" Judd panted, leaning over, his hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. "It's the Mynah, they – they," he took a deep breath, backing away slightly in an attempt to avoid the repercussions of a potential 'shoot the messenger' scenario. "They have Kai." Judd winced impulsively, not looking at Lahti as he continued. "I don't know how it happened, he was out getting lunch and it must have been their intention, because TEN of them attacked him! Kai's good, but ten to one? Even you're not that good! And they didn't kill him."

"Why didn't you help him?" Lahti asked, his voice dangerously stable.

"I wasn't there," Judd panted. "I – someone who witnessed it told me about it, I went to the same restaurant to get some food and it was a wreck, the owner explained that ten men jumped a skinny boy with dark hair and rough karate skills; said that the boy fought best using a chain with a pointed spear head on the end – that's KAI!"

"Yes, thank you." Lahti nodded. "I realize that."

"Well then why are you just standing there?!" Judd asked. "What are you going to do about it?"

"If he's in the Mynah's possession, he's as good as dead, if he's not already."

"I told you, they didn't kill him! They weren't trying to kill him! You have to understand, something fishy is going on here!"

"Judd, we are at war," Lahti stated. "There will be casualties. Kai has fallen into the losses." With that, Lahti turned, leaving Judd panting in the doorway of the office, confused and breathless.

* * *

"Lahti?" About an hour later, there was a knock on Lahti's bedroom door. "Please let me in."

"It's unlocked," Lahti replied, recognizing the voice of Sana, his chief computer hacker/ technology guru. Sana and Lahti had been very close for years – ever since Sana had come out with a deeper appreciation for other girls than was 'normal' for other women. Until Kai came, they had been the only two homosexual members of Sarte, and that forged a bond between that Judd, and sometimes even Kai, could not understand.

"Judd told me what happened," Sana said softly as she closed the door behind her. "I thought that you might want to know that he's still alive."

"Alright." Lahti shrugged. "Even if there were a way for you to know that, why would I care?"

"Lahti, you might be fooling everyone else…" Sana shook her head. "But you can't get this past me. I don't presume to know you as well as I would like to, but I do know you better than anyone else here and I can tell that you feel for Kai – beyond the intense physical relationship that everyone knows about. Now you can keep trying to lie to me about this, or you can give up and let me help you."

"This stays between us," Lahti said after a moment. "I don't trust anyone right now, especially not with something like this."

"It won't leave this room." She shook her head. "Tell me what you're feeling, Lahti."

"Only if, first, you tell me how you know he's still alive."

"He has a tracer," Sana began to explain. "It's in a necklace that he always wears. I made it for him – customized to his personality and to his heartbeat."

"His heartbeat?" Lahti looked at her, confused.

"It transmits his location and his heartbeat," she clarified. "If his heart stops beating, even if it started beating irregularly, I would know about it by now."

"What if someone else is wearing it?" Lahti asked.

"Then the rhythm of the beat would have changed," Sana shook her head.

"That's…impressive," Lahti admitted.

"You underestimate me." Sana offered him a weak smile.

"Sometimes, that is true," he nodded. "Why did you do that for him?"

"He's your boy," she shrugged. "You have one too – I'm surprised you haven't figure it out by now." She smiled. "Seeing as you wear the necklace every single day - you know, the one I gave you for your birthday three years ago?"

"I should have known." Lahti nodded.

"At any rate, stop avoiding your end of the bargain – what do you feel for Kai?"

"Tell me where he is first."

"Fine." Sana rolled her eyes, knowing that Lahti was just trying to prolong the time that he had to discuss his feelings; he may be gay, but that did NOT mean that he liked to have heart to hearts. "He's at the Mynah headquarters."

"Great," Lahti sighed. "The one place we couldn't rescue him from."

"Exactly." Sana nodded. "And they clearly know that. Now spill."

"If I have to." Lahti looked away. He made the deal to tell her, but he had absolutely no intention of looking at Sana as he did so. "With Kai…he's my lover, yes, and everybody knows that, but he's also the first person that's ever saved my life. I've been in danger hundreds of times, and until Kai, I had always gotten myself out of it; then he came along and saved my life _twice_." Lahti paused. "The first time was random – he was working for me, his instincts kicked in and he pushed me out of the way, but the second time…the second time he came for me. That boy, that crazy kid, walked into a deathtrap _knowingly _to rescue me, even after I had practically told him that I wanted nothing more to do with him."

"So you care for him because he saved your life?" Sana asked.

"Partially." Lahti nodded. "He's a talented fighter, he is very smart, he isn't hard to look at – but he's young, Sana." Lahti shook his head. "He's too young to understand the weight of what he's gotten himself into by getting involved with me. This world, it will tear him apart and he can't change it and he can't beat it, none of us can."

"What are you saying?" Sana asked.

"He's in love with me." Lahti declared.

"I know that." Sana shrugged. "We all know that. What no one knows is if you're in love with him."

"If I am, it doesn't matter." Lahti shrugged.

"Why not?" Sana frowned.

"Because he will always love me more than I could ever care about him," Lahti explained. "Even if I save him now he'll still be trapped in an unequal relationship; if I save him, Sana, he won't leave me, just like I won't ask him to leave me until I'm bored with him."

"What if you don't get bored with him?" Sana pressed. "What if Kai is different than the others?"

"He's not." Lahti shook his head. "Kai Kouda is special, yes, but he's not that special. No one is."

"So you're going to let him die?" Sana asked.

"This city needs me, Sana," Lahti stated. "I won't sacrifice myself for a boy; not while I'm still needed."

* * *

_**A/N 2: Sorry to have one at both the top and the bottom - I just thought that it might be fun to give a SMALL preview of chapter 2, so here you go!  
**_

"I have entertained the image of you tied up many times, Kai, but I never would have imagined that it would look this good."

"Maria." Kai looked up to see his ex girlfriend; the sister of his current lover, looking down at him, a coy smirk on her face. "I should have known."


	2. Chapter 2

_"Don't get me wrong, I know you've got your life in place, I've yet to take a hint. Someday I'm sure I'll get the picture and stop waiting up."_

Kai remembered everything that had happened the second he woke up. He remembered being at the corner restaurant finishing up his lunch when a commotion started. He remembered trying desperately to fight his way out of it, but he was the only person fighting against these men – he remembered them saying that as long as everyone stood down except for 'the boy at the corner table' no one would get hurt. No one except for Kai. He remembered fighting as hard as he could, wondering why Mynah would have sent ten men after _him_. He remembered being cornered after a few minutes of surprisingly good fighting, considering it was ten to one, and the last thing that he remembered was a rag being shoved over his mouth and a toxin of some sort entering his body before passing out.

The second he came too, he had a heightened awareness of his surroundings – the kind that he only had when he knew he shouldn't be alive and didn't understand why he wasn't dead yet. Using a combination of sight and feeling, he assessed quickly that he was in the corner of a room. He wasn't alone, as there were desks and a few computers, not to mention people, in the room, but none of them seemed to be looking at him – he was in the back, the closest desk was a good four yards away and he didn't want to attract attention any sooner than he had to.

His wrists had been pulled behind him, tied tightly together and attached to a metal loop coming out of the ground so that he couldn't get very far, even if he tried. A length of rope had been wrapped three times around his upper torso, pinning his upper arms to his sides and his legs were bound together at both the ankle and just below the knee cap. He was sitting on the ground, the only thing between his back and the wall of the corner was his bound arms, and his legs, instead of being straight out in front of him, were bent at the knees so that he took up less space. He could have stretched his legs out had he wanted to, but he honestly didn't see the point.

He spent several minutes trying to figure where he was, though he assumed it was some Mynah base, why he was still alive, though he assumed that it had something to do with collateral, and how to get out, though he assumed that was impossible. After awhile, he resigned himself to try and get as comfortable as possible, as he didn't anticipate freedom anytime soon. He was in the process of straightening his back against the wall as best he could in an attempt to keep it from going stiff, when someone walked up and stopped right in front of him.

"I have entertained the image of you tied up many times, Kai, but I never would have imagined that it would look this good."

"Maria." Kai looked up to see his ex girlfriend; the sister of his current lover, looking down at him, a coy smirk on her face. "I should have known."

"Kai," Maria shook her head. "You already knew, don't pretend that you didn't – after all, I am the only one who knows you well enough to catch you off guard."

"I wouldn't call sending ten men after me catching me off guard," Kai spat. "I would call that using brute force to ensure that you didn't fail."

"Does it really matter now?" she asked, dropping to her knees beside him and reaching up to place her hand on his cheek, caressing it in what would appear a gentle manner to anyone who didn't know better.

"Don't touch me." Kai turned his head away swiftly, though he knew that if she wanted to touch him, he wouldn't be able to stop her.

"It doesn't have to be like that," she whispered, her voice seductive and dangerous. "After all, we used to be on the same side, Kai, and if you didn't treasure that at all, you wouldn't still call me Maria."

"I call me Maria because I know you as Maria." Kai retorted. "Not because I have any feelings left for you – you tried to kill me, you've tried to kill your own brother and now this. There is nothing left between us." Kai's words, determined and harsh as they may be, earned him nothing from his captor but a rough slap across the cheek, causing his head to turn yet again and his dark hair to fall into his eyes.

"I don't think that you understand the way things work around here, Kai." She gestured towards the room; the people, desks and computers. "You can't escape from this place. Ropes may not hold you, but the drug that entered your system earlier have weakened you greatly, it will be days before you can fight again, and by then, I'm sure that we will have what we want." She put her hand on Kai's chest, slowly undoing the top button of his black shirt. "Having you around is only a means to an end, though I can't say that it won't be nice to have you around again; you were always fun for me."

"I'm not your toy anymore." Kai tried to pull away, jerking his body as best he could and startling her touch. "I share someone else's bed now and no matter how hard you try, I will never be yours again."

"Look around you, Kai. I control everything in this room." Maria smirked. "I control those people, I control this building, I control those computers and I control you." She put her hand behind Kai, resting it on his bound wrists. "These ropes, they're mine and they are holding you; that makes you mine too." She removed her hand from his wrists and grabbed his chin, harshly pulling his face towards her, looking at him, giving him no choice but to look back. "You may walk this city a free man again, Kai, if you're lucky, but for now, you're mine in every respect."

"No, Maria." Kai tried his best to shake his head, but her grip was too strong…and he was too weak. "I'm not. The only way that I will ever be fully yours again is if I love you and that is never going to happen."

"Of all of the attributes you possess, of everything that makes you," Maria shot back. "Your heart is what I least desire." Maria roughly pushed his head away and got to her feet, walking away without another word, though she did look back at him as she left, throwing him a sinister smirk, and Kai sighed, resting his head against the hard wall, knowing that this was far, far from over.


	3. Chapter 3

"His heart is still beating, Lahti." Sana stood in doorway of Lahti's office almost two days later.

"Close the door," he ordered. Sana did as she was told and moved into the office, sitting down in the chair across from Lahti. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Yes." Sana nodded. "Everyone's heartbeat is different – unique to them just a little bit. If the necklace had been switched to someone else, I would know; if the rhythm stopped, even for a second, I would know. Lahti, they haven't killed him, they haven't even tried, the beat isn't weak; a little slow, but nothing serious."

"I don't like this, Sana." Lahti shook his head. "I don't understand why they haven't killed him yet."

"Yes you do," Sana said softly. "You know exactly why he's still alive. You know why they took him and you know what you have to do to save him, but you're not going to, are you?"

"What do you mean?" Lahti asked.

"Don't play innocent with me, Bara." Sana shook her head. "It's insulting. Why would they attack Kai and not Judd – a much easier target, or me, even? The simplest of all." She tilted her head to the side. "They took Kai for a specific reason, and you know what that is."

"Sana -"

"Don't 'Sana' me." She rolled her eyes. "Kai is your right hand man, he's your second in command as well as your lover – now there are two things that they may be trying to get from him, perhaps both." When Lahti didn't speak, Sana continued. "They could be after you, Lahti. They could be under the impression that Kai means something to you, something more than anyone else who works for you. They might think that you would trade yourself for Kai, or perhaps that you would attempt to rescue him and they could kill you in the process."

"Then they're wrong," Lahti stated. "I've said it once and I'll say it again – I won't sacrifice my life for him."

"In that case, Lahti, he shares both your bed and your trust. As both your lover and second in command, he is privy to more information than anyone else around you. If they can't get the leader, why not go for the second best thing? All of the information that the leader is fighting to keep a secret."

"He doesn't know everything," Lahti objected, though his fist clenched noticeable against the top of the table.

"He knows enough and they will torture him for it." Sana's voice was clear, but Lahti could tell that she was frightened. It was true, Kai knew enough about Sarte, the workings of the group and of Lahti himself to compromise everything that they were fighting for by giving up the information. If that happened, Lahti, Sarte and everyone else within the Sarte network was as good as dead. Death didn't scare Lahti, but losing the city, _his _city to the Mynah did.

"He won't tell them anything," Lahti objected. "He won't tell them anything for the same reason that he won't ever leave me. He loves me, Sana. Unlike me, he is capable of loving someone enough to give up his for them – he has already risked his for mine on numerous occasions. Kai Kouda is tough, Sana. He won't tell them anything; no matter what they do to him, he will die before he betrays me."

"You have a lot of faith in him," Sana mused. "Are you sure that this faith isn't misplaced? He believed Bihaan's disguise, after all."

"That's because he met her and knew her as the doctor Maria who had patched up his head; he didn't meet her as Bihaan and believe her anyways; Kai is young, but he isn't stupid." Lahti bowed his head. "When Kai came here, after everything with Maria, I told him of the dangers that this city possessed; I told him that his work here was done, that if he stayed he would be choosing to lead a dangerous, and almost definitely shortened life. He knew the risks of staying in this place, Sana, and yet he chose to stay with me. He will not betray me or Sarte. He will not tell our secrets and he will not expect me to surrender myself in his stead. There is no way to rescue him that benefits anyone other than him, and he alone is not enough to take the risks that would be required."

"Lahti-"

"No." Lahti cut her off. "He knew the risks and now he will live with them, just as you and I will if the same were to befall us. Individual attachment may be present, it is no secret, I do not view Kai as solely a commodity the way that I used to, but I am not blind. I see that the city, the people of this city, his life isn't worth all of theirs, and furthermore, if he were here, he would agree with me." Lahti paused to take a breath. "If I wasn't needed here any longer, I would trade myself for the boy, but that is not the case, so it will not be done." With that, Lahti finished, letting his hands slide off of the table and into his lap. He looked up at Sana, his blue eyes meeting her brown ones, a painful finality in both his expression and the tone that he had used.

"What if there was another way?" Sana asked hesitantly, her voice quiet as she tore her eyes away from Lahti. "What if there was a way to save Kai without sacrificing yourself or the secrets and wellbeing of the city?"

"Depending on what it did risk, I may or may not accept it, but I would look into it." Lahti nodded, his voice steady and clear. "Why? Are you saying that you have found something?"

"I'm not saying that I have for sure," Sana bit her lip. "But I am saying that I have found a possibility. If you would like me to pursue it further, I will, and then bring my findings to you once I am more certain one way or the other."

"Yes." Lahti nodded. "Kai is an asset both to me and to this city – if there is a safe way of securing him, I would like to know about it."

"Then I will look into it." Sana stood up, bowing slightly before exiting the room, leaving Lahti sitting alone, wondering if their truly was any way that he could get Kai out of this without risking too much. After all, he did care for Kai, just not the way the Kai cared for him, or so he would convince himself until the city no longer needed him to be heartless.

* * *

_**A/N I got a twitter, hit me up if you're interested! Username is EmilyAnn24601.**_


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